NHL Boston Bruins get lucky break in 3-2 victory over Buffalo Sabres
Right Winger Mark Recchi notched the game-winning goal 2:11 into overtime to lift the Boston Bruins to a 3-2 win against Buffalo Sabres at TD Garden on 7th December 2010.
"I knew right away it was in, but then you've got to keep playing because you just don't know", Recchi said. "It went in the net, that's all that matters".
Left winger Milan Lucic scored for the third time in four games, posting a goal in the victory. Goaltender Tim Thomas turned away 30 shots and David Krejci assisted on two of Boston's three goals.
Buffalo’s centre-man Luke Adam notched the first goal of his NHL career in the loss to Boston while left winger Thomas Vanek registered his second goal in three games.
Buffalo goaltender Ryan Miller allowed three goals on 36 shots.
The Sabres ended Miller's eight-period shutout streak in the first, and then had to rally in the third period to force overtime. Bruins got a power play in the spare time when Luke Adam raked Marc Savard across the face with his stick for a high-sticking
double-minor.
"It's a tough way to lose", said Miller, who had posted back-to-back shutouts and hadn't allowed a goal in 161 minutes, 35 seconds in a 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on 27th of November.
Buffalo had a chance to win the game when centre-man Derek Roy was all alone in front against Thomas early in the overtime session but he failed to end the game, Roy tried to stick-handle Thomas out of position, but Patrice Bergeron (Bruins’ centre-man)
finally skated in to break up the play and keep the Bruins in it.
Adam was given four penalty minutes and the Bruins went to work on the 4-on-3 power play for the last 3:14 of overtime.
With the 4-on-3 advantage, Bruins set up in the Buffalo end. Krejci, from the left side, slid a soft pass back to the centre-point for defenseman Dennis Seidenberg, who lined up a slap shot that deflected off Recchi's pants and flew past the Miller. The
puck came out of the net so quickly that neither referee nor the goal judge thought it was a goal.
"It's a gut-wrencher when you lose like that", Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said.
Miller's shutout streak ended when the Bruins opened the scoring at the 13:21 mark of the first period. Milan Lucic sneaked the puck past Miller as his turnaround wrester found a gap between the near post and Miller's pad and barely made its way fully across
the goal line.
The visitors reached the scoreboard at 12:57 mark of the second period when right winger Jason Pominville hit a shot and Thomas made a save, the rebound sat in the low slot and Adam slid the disc through heavy traffic and underneath Thomas for his first
goal in his NHL career.
Vanek's 11th goal gave Sabres a 2-1 lead in the early stages of the third. A regular dump-in along the right side was reached first by Vanek. He went behind the net for the puck and flipped it toward the net. It hit Thomas in the back on his left side and
bounced in.
Bruins have won three consecutive games against the Buffalo.
Bruins were very aggressive with the fore-check during the entire second stanza, and it led to several scoring chances, one of which was a breakaway by Recchi, who hit the post.
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